Nuri Demirağ (1886 in Divriği – November 13, 1957, in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

) was an early Turkish

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

and politician, who was one of the first millionaires of the Turkish Republic.

Biography

His first enterprise was a cigarette paper factory which commenced production in 1922. Starting from the late 1920s, Demirağ began to invest his capital in the development of the Turkish railway network. Because of this investment,

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

gave him the surname ''Demirağ'' (meaning "Iron web") when the Surname Law was put into effect in 1934. In 1936 he established an aircraft factory employing 500 people in

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

(later nationalized by the government and now occupied by the Istanbul Naval Museum). The production of the Nu D.36 two-seat trainer

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

, and Nu D.38 twin-engine

high-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing config ...

light transport plane took place in this factory. In 1945 he founded the first opposition party, which was named ''Milli Kalkınma Partisi'' ( National Development Party), but his party failed to receive the required number of votes for entering the Turkish parliament in the 1946 and 1950 general elections, and was eventually dissolved in 1958, a year after his death. In 1954, he was elected as a member of parliament for

Sivas Sivas is a city in central Turkey. It is the seat of Sivas Province and Sivas District.İl Beledi ...

on behalf of the Democratic Party, which won the general elections. Demirağ donated his airplanes to his flying school (''Gök Okulu'') in Yeşilköy, which he established for attracting the interest of young Turks in aviation. The land upon which the school was built was later nationalized by the Turkish government in order to enlarge the neighbouring Yeşilköy Airport ( Atatürk International Airport) which was originally established as a military air base of the Ottoman Air Force in 1911. Demirağ died in 1957 from

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

External links

Biography of Nuri Demirağ

References

Businesspeople in aviation 20th-century Turkish businesspeople Turkish philanthropists 1886 births 1957 deaths People from Divriği Turkish industrialists Railway entrepreneurs Diabetes-related deaths Deputies of Sivas Leaders of political parties in Turkey 20th-century philanthropists Turkish political party founders {{Turkey-business-bio-stub